The Syracuse University men’s basketball team earned one of the four top seeds in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and it also earned another top four spot — it has been ranked the fourth-most profitable program in the Tournament.

A recent article by CNBC listing the 2008-09 profits for teams in the Tournament lists the Orange at No. 4 with a recorded profit of $9,032,878. The rankings are based on each school’s personal reporting as part of a requirement in the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.

The profit is calculated from the difference between each school’s reported expenses and revenues. For the 2008-09 year, Syracuse reported $7,784,244 in expenses for men’s basketball and $16,817,122 in revenues, according to the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website.

The Orange reported profits well above No. 5 University of Minnesota, which reported a profit of $7,843,045.

The University of Louisville drew in the highest profits, far beyond the competition at $16,869,659. Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin also drew in more profits than Syracuse.

The men’s basketball team finished with a record of 28-10 in the 2008-09 season. The team lost to the University of Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Because each school calculates its own revenues and expenses, SU’s chief financial officer, Lou Marcoccia, said it’s impossible to make an exact comparison between profits.

“It’s probably not a very comparable ‘apples and apples’ type of comparison,” he said. “What’s likely taking place is some people may account for certain things on one campus and other types of expenses that aren’t charged on another campus.”

The CNBC article also lists the name and capacity of each school’s home stadium. The Carrier Dome seats 33,633 fans, beating every other stadium on the list by at least 10,000 seats. SU’s large basketball facility increases the opportunity compared with other universities for ticket sales and contributes to higher revenues, Marcoccia said.

The SU athletic department must pay a rental fee to the Carrier Dome every time it uses the facility, he said, which contributes to the team’s expenses. A share of ticket revenue must be given back to the Dome to help balance its budgets, he said.

The profits brought in by the basketball team go toward supporting the other athletic teams on campus, Marcoccia said.

“The real takeaway is that the dollars generated by basketball and football go back to support all of the other sports teams,” he said.

Published on March 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm